TEHRAN (FNA)- NATO's 70th birthday summit was held in London. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance has struggled somewhat to keep its focus in light of a weakened and fractured opponent.
As the former Soviet Union broke apart, NATO has needed to rethink its purpose post-Cold War. With concerns of foreign interference – including the widespread use of "fake news" – to influence election outcomes, such a purpose has perhaps never been more exposed.
Last year's meeting was marred by clashes between the US and its European allies. At the center of these clashes was President Trump's insistence that defense spending by its allies needs to increase significantly and better pull its weight in Trump's eyes. Otherwise, Trump threatened to reduce America's contribution.
This is a strange threat to make to your allies at a critical time. The US is at least formally signed up to standing up for NATO's mission and goals. Cutting America's support would undermine this. On the other hand, NATO has failed to refocus its driving purpose after helping win the Cold War.
Publication of an official House of Commons report that officially comments on such alleged interference by Russia in particular on both the EU referendum and 2017 general election has been delayed by British prime minister until after the current general election. It's impossible to see why this was done unless such a report was fake, or would be hugely damaging to the political positions taken by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This situation changes conventions.
There is hardly anything new in a PM – or others – blaming foreign interference as something to oppose in an election. What is new is its being allegedly courted. Previously, any such interference would have been seen in a bad light. But now anything that can help the PM keep power does appear to be off limits.
One broad implication for NATO is there are question marks – at least in Trump's US and Boris' UK – about its commitments, in light of serious question regarding alleged Russian interference in recent elections. This is a part of NATO finding its feet post-Cold War.
A second implication is that the original Cold War might be over, but there is a new phase resurfacing in the form of a disinformation and political defragmentation strategy some in the West claim to be in operation now. Gone is trying to undermine Western democracies through propaganda of a better tomorrow behind the Iron Curtain. Instead, it is an operation centered around spreading division and fear to undermine enemies instead of winning people over in a more positive way. That's what they claim Russia has been doing, but in essence, you could very readily find out that Donald Trump and his far right allies in the West are running this very operation, if at all. NATO experts should be asked to give this question a moment of honest thinking: which one of these two is spreading division and fear to undermine the EU, Putin or Trump?
NATO's divisions are very unlikely to be healed after the summit. Johnson's presence (and likely comments) caused disagreement. NATO is clearly under strain, but yet no member is calling for its dissolution.
The NATO summit coughed up few, if any, surprises as its members remain divided – and their alleged opponents make further progress. Trump and Johnson were more focused on keeping power than their promises or integrity. And this creates a problem not only for them and their countries' support for NATO but much more.
To sum up, the tale of NATO is intertwined with both conflicting realpolitik pursuits and fundamentally divided world views. With the end-of-history high spirit dying down in the West following the 2008 global financial crisis, NATO's 70th anniversary offered a new candid look at the gradual unraveling of Western dominance.
The big anniversary reminded people to do a round of stocktaking. Players within the military bloc of NATO may choose to appease the angry and the dumbfounded for as long as can be done, observers in the global community may as well know better about NATO and its troubled future.
No comments:
Post a Comment